Chapter 1: What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
Welcome to Seeking Alpha's Wall Street Lunch, our afternoon update on today's market action, news, and analysis. Good afternoon. Today is Tuesday, March 10th, and I'm your host, Kim Kahn. Our top story so far, AI startup Advanced Machine Intelligence, founded by former Meta Platform's chief AI scientist, Jan LeCun, has raised $1 billion in seed funding.
The company says it's building a new breed of AI systems that understand the world, have persistent memory, can reason and plan, and are controllable and safe. AMI already reached $3.5 billion in pre-money valuation, according to Reuters.
The startup, less than three months old, said the round was co-led by Cathay Innovation, Greycroft, Hero Capital, HV Capital, and Bezos Expeditions, among others. AMI is also appointing Alex Lebrun as CEO. Lebrun has spent 24 years building AI products, including work on chatbots, natural language systems, Facebook's M Assistant, and healthcare AI.
Jan LeCun, who spent more than 12 years at Facebook before leaving in January, has said Meta will not invest in his company. There's a lot more AI news. As Anthropic takes the Pentagon to court, CFO Krishna Rao said in a filing that the government's blacklisting could reduce the company's 2026 revenue by multiple billions of dollars.
If the government's actions are allowed to stand, and if the ripple effect comes to pass, it would be almost impossible to reverse, Rao said. NVIDIA has made a significant investment in Thinking Machines and will supply the startup with chips in a multi-year deal.
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Chapter 2: What is the significance of Advanced Machine Intelligence's $1 billion funding?
Thinking Machines Lab, run by former OpenAI CTO Miro Marati, said it will deploy at least one gigawatt of NVIDIA's Vera Rubin system to support frontier model training. Applied Materials has partnered with Micron Technology to develop DRAM, high-bandwidth memory, and NAND solutions aimed at boosting AI system performance.
And Polymarket is working with Palantir Technologies and TWG Global's AI unit to help monitor its sports contracts as scrutiny grows around gamblers and players fixing outcomes. Did you hear about the points we were shaving in Boston? No, I didn't. Oh, it was terrific.
Bloomberg says Palantir and TWG will help detect, prevent, and report suspicious trading activity with systems screening participants against lists of individuals already banned from sports betting. Among active stocks, Morgan Stanley turns bullish on CrowdStrike, boosting its rating to overweight from equal weight and adding the company to its top pick list.
Analysts at Bennett Marshall said they see CrowdStrike as a durable platform winner from favorable AI positioning, growing uptake of emerging modules, and improving endpoint trends. Valuation is expensive, they note, but 20% plus top-line growth, an improving margin and free cash flow profile, and a defensible moat offer ample justification.
And Vertex Pharmaceuticals is the top S&P gainer after reporting encouraging results from a Phase 3 trial of its treatment for kidney diseases. And in other news of note, Bill Ackman's Pershing Square has filed for an IPO on the NYSC as the hedge fund manager revised plans to bring his firm to the public markets.
The filing outlines a dual structure that would list Pershing Square Management's company alongside a new closed-end fund, Pershing Square USA. The Pershing Square USA fund aims to raise $5 to $10 billion, with shares expected to be priced at $50. Investors purchasing shares in the fund would also receive bonus shares in the management company, an incentive designed to boost demand.
Ackman is pitching the structure as a permanent capital vehicle, modeled partly on Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway approach. The move comes after Ackman abandoned a previous attempt to take Pershing Square USA public in 2024 when investor demand fell short. That's all for today's Wall Street Lunch. Look for links for stories in the show notes section.
Don't forget, these episodes will be up with transcriptions at seekingalpha.com. And for a full suite of news, analysis, ratings, and data on stocks and ETFs, go to seekingalpha.com.
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